The Peaceful School Bus Program is a whole-school program designed to decrease inappropriate behavior on school buses while creating a climate of respect and cooperation. The adults in school take the primary responsibility of educating and training students in the program so students can, in turn, act responsibly on school buses when staff members are not present.

Teach100

Center for Leadership and Bullying Prevention

Monday, April 1, 2013

"Works in Progress"

In the book, Switch, by Dan and Chip Heath, the
authors discuss how people have a deep-rooted tendency to ignore the
situational factors that shape other people’s behavior. They call this the “Fundamental Attribution
Error”. The error lies in our
inclination to attribute people’s behavior to the way they are rather than the
situation that they are in. This
attribution error manifests itself when someone is thought of as stubborn or
difficult.

This attribution error is very prominent in schools and
strongly influences many school practices.
When kids for any reason fail to conform to the expectations of those in
authority whether it be in academic domains or social emotional domains the
reasons for failing to meet those expectations are believed to reside within
the student. If a student fails
consistently, the student has a learning disability-there is something wrong
with the student. If we attributed the
problem from the person to the situation, we could easily explain the failure
differently. What if the problem was the
situation? The “failure” was more a
function of the situation where an arbitrary timeline for learning something
was imposed, so that the student just needed more time to learn it. Remove the arbitrary timeline for learning
and the student could master the subject without the stigma of failing. If this sounds like a radical idea, it
shouldn’t. We allow people to take the
driving test for getting their license when they are ready to pass it and then
most people who want to drive are able to pass it. Why shouldn’t students take tests to show
mastery of a topic when they are ready to pass it, so there would be no
failures? We can have a lot of control
of a situation when we take the time to examine the situation and learn to
“tweak the environment” so that people can succeed. That is if our goal is to have people succeed
(and success for some is dependent upon some people failing).

Let’s apply this fundamental attribution error to bullying
prevention. This relates to my prior
post related to attributing a student’s inappropriate behavior to “will” or
motivation rather than “skill.” Most behavioral
programs are based on the premise that you change students’ behavior by
rewarding them when they act according to the expectations of those in
authority and deprive them of those rewards when they don’t. The kids who fail to do well in school are
often thought to lack motivation. A
better way to interpret this “unmotivated” behavior is this: they are motivated
to avoid failing at tasks/goals that appear arbitrary and unattainable to them.
Change their perception and experience of school to a place where success is
attainable and failure is not stigmatized and they will be motivated, or better
yet would have never lost their motivation to learn in the first place.

This approach is based on the premise that kids are not
motivated to do good. Ross Greene
suggests that most kids want to do well and when they don’t it is because they
lack the skills that will help them met the expectations facing them. I argued that this shift from “will” attribution to “skill” attribution
fundamentally changes teacher attitude and behavior towards kids who have
behavioral problems. They would be less likely to be angry or resentful towards
the “troublemakers” and instead see them as needing more help and support in
learning better ways of solving problems especially in the social world.

I want to take this thinking a step further with the problem
of bullying. This fundamental
attribution error affects how we see the student who bullies, is bullied and
the bystanders. In reality, all students
are works in progress, i.e. they are learning how to live in the social world
and it is inevitable that they will make mistakes. How we as adults interpret these mistakes
and respond to them is really the critical factor in determining their
frequency, duration and impact on the school community.

Here are some key points that should guide educators in
avoiding the fundamental attribution error when it comes to school bullying:

Make sure that staff accept the fact that kids will make mistakes
and that mistakes are part of the learning process. This doesn’t mean that bullying is a rite of
passage that is unavoidable, but it does mean that kids who bully aren’t bad
kids or are inherently troublemakers. It
means that some kids need to learn how
not to bully others. That may sound
strange, but it recognizes the fact that bullying in many situations provides a
social function for kids-it raises their status. We have to help kids learn other ways to do
this.

Avoid the mindset
that the desired state of school should be problem free or that problems are
things that get in the way of “smooth functioning” or order. We should have a matter of fact attitude
towards problems. This will make
discussing them a lot less emotional.
This type of attitude makes it more likely that kids will be more open
to sharing them or discussing them with adults.

Recognize that
knowing about problems is much better than not knowing about them. In schools ignorance is not bliss it is
dangerous. We also need to know that
the default mindset of most people is that those in leadership positions prefer
the “no news is good news” concept. This
means that people are reluctant to bring problems to those in authority. Small problems that are ignored often turn
into large problems that can’t be ignored because damage has been done.

Operate on the
assumption that people want to do well.
This will eliminate the false need (driven by fear) that we have to
motivate kids (anybody) to do well.
Focus instead on understanding the reasons people don’t do what we think they
should do. When we have a better
understanding of the factors that influence why people do what they do, we can
start to work with them, coach them to learn why they are doing what they are
doing and what they can do differently to meet their needs in a better way.

Recognize the
developmental needs of kids and how these differ from traditional behavioral
stimulus/response explanations of behavior.
Going around giving out tokens or rewards catching kids being good doesn't really help kids live in their social world. We are only trying to get them to behave the
way we want them to behave. We need to
recognize what kids are experiencing developmentally and how those internal needs
affect their external behavior. We need
to help kids figure out what is going on inside of them-that is why talking and
communicating should be a key element not just of bullying prevention, but of
education in general.

Acknowledge and value
the presence of the social nature of learning. If we don’t devote time and conversation to
acknowledging with kids that we know how important the social world is to them,
they will not share what is going on in it with us. Kids do naturally almost need to keep some
things from adults, but they need to know that we recognize the social world as
important to them so that they don’t automatically keep everything from us. When
teachers appear that the most important thing to them is getting kids to learn
subject matter, they are inadvertently sending the message that they are
unconcerned with what is happening in kids’ lives. Taking even a few minutes to acknowledge the
social world periodically lets kids know that adults do care and are then to
listen when kids decide they need help.

Remember always that
adults and kids are in it together.
We are all struggling together to make things work and it is not
easy. Acknowledging this to kids helps
them see that life is a constant process of working things out and doing this
together is a lot easier then doing it alone.
To quote the movie Jerry Maguire: “Help me to help you” –this should be
a key message that we send kids.

Being compassionate
and caring toward the kids who break the rules does not mean you are soft or
condone the behavior. There are
actually adults who feel that if anyone shows any kindness to a “rule breaker”
that they will be promoting that type of behavior. This is why a harsh tone of voice or condescending
attitude can become so prevalent in many adults who discipline kids. A bottom
line principle for staff needs to be that no one is ever deserving of
disrespect. Kids who make mistakes need
our compassion and will accept our guidance and direction when we respect and
care for them.

Schools cannot be places where the adult world and the
student world have few places of connection.
It cannot be “us” against “them” but much more of a “we are in this
together”. We are all “works in
progress” which is just another way of saying that schools are places of
learning. If we think about what
learning really means and make schools place of learning rather than places of
performance, we would be heading in the right direction not just toward less
bullying but toward more optimal learning across the board. We are all
“works in progress” and we need to help each other get better all the
time. (Remember the movement is from good to great not from bad to good.)

About Me

Jim Dillon is the author of The Peaceful School Bus published by Hazelden. He was the principal of Lynnwood Elementary School for seventeen years. He is retired but works part time for Measurement Incorporated. He consults and does training for schools and districts.
He is the author of :
No Place for Bullying: Leadership for schools that care for every student published by Corwin Press.
He is also a certified trainer in the Olweus Bully Prevention Program.